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The agreement between the NFL and CBS to show games on Thursday was part of a new broadcast agreement reached earlier this year. A total of eight games will be shown on CBS as part of the package, which currently is targeted to run from Sept. 11 to Oct. 30. The games will also be simulcast on NFL Network.

With costs so high, advertising interest is under additional scrutiny. CBS execs say that even with CBS Thursday Night Football set to get underway in just a few short weeks, ad inventory is not all gobbled up.

“There is still space available” in CBS’ Sunday-afternoon and Thursday-night football broadcasts, said John Bogusz, the network’s executive vice president of sports sales and marketing, in an interview with Variety. “We are happy with where we are,” he said of the amount of advertising sold.

Presenting sponsors will be Lowe’s and Verizon for the pre-game show, with the two getting exclusive sponsorship in each half-hour of the one hour show. LexusLexus will sponsor halftime with Mazda sponsoring CBS’ post-game show.

According to the report, CBS is guaranteeing a 12.3 household rating for the games which is closely behind NBC’s ratings for Sunday Night Football on NBC last year.

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